The Foreign Ministry on Friday urged the international community to impose effective sanctions on Iran as soon as possible. The statement was issued following a report by the International Atomic Energy Agency stating that Iran may currently be working on ways to turn enriched uranium into a nuclear warhead.
"The international community must impose sanctions on Iran as soon as possible, so Tehran will understand the heavy price it would pay if it were to continue advancing its nuclear program," the statement said.
The Foreign Ministry also noted that the new IAEA report is far sharper and clearer than previous reports regarding the military aspects of Iran's nuclear program.
Earlier on Friday, the German government said that Iran's failure to comply with the wishes of the United Nations over its nuclear program is forcing the international community to pursue further sanctions against Tehran.
"The persistent defiance...of United Nations resolutions and Tehran's continuation of a dangerous nuclear policy are forcing the international community to pursue further comprehensive sanctions in New York against the regime in Tehran," government spokesman Ulrich Wilhelm told a regular news conference.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel was still "extending her hand" towards Iran and remained committed to reaching a diplomatic solution, Wilhelm told a regular news conference.
"We rule out a military solution," he said.
Germany's comments came as Russia's Foreign Ministry said Friday that Iran must more actively cooperate with the U.N. nuclear agency, the IAEA, to convince the world that its nuclear program is peaceful, Interfax news agency reported.
"Tehran must be more active in its cooperation with the IAEA and widen it," Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Andrei Nesterenko was quoted as saying at a briefing in Moscow.
Iran said on Friday that charges in a recently leaked IAEA report claiming the Islamic republic was attempting to develop nuclear weapons were "nothing new but tiresome."
"The West's accusations are baseless because our religious beliefs bar us from using such weapons ... we do not believe in atomic weapons and are not seeking that," Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was quoted as saying on state television.
In its report Thursday, the IAEA said that it had concerns that Iran is currently working on a nuclear warhead.
It was the first time the Vienna-based organization has used such phrasing in one of its reports, which had so far referred to past activities.
"The issues related to alleged studies regarding missiles raised in the latest IAEA report had also been raised in previous IAEA reports and are therefore nothing new but gradually becoming tiresome," Iran's IAEA envoy Ali-Asghar Soltanieh told ISNA news agency.
The Iranian envoy claimed also claimed the new IAEA chief, Yukiya Amano, confirmed the peaceful nature of Iran's nuclear projects.
Earlier Friday, President Shimon Peres said that Israel must form a broad international coalition to face the Iranian nuclear threat,adding that it wasn't a question of who has nuclear weapons bur rather what it intends to do with that arsenal.
Speaking at the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations in Jerusalem, Peres said that to "curb Iran's nuclear ambitions Israel must create a broad coalition of nations that can face the Iranian threat."
"The question isn't who has the bomb, but who has executioners," Peres said, adding that "the Iranians are executioners who are trying to get a bomb, and its time we called the executioner by his name, and call a dictator a dictator.
Source: Haaretz.com
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